Monthly Archives: September 2017

Senior Partners in EV Private Equity, Rune Jensen and Per Arne Jensen, who
established the Norwegian Private Equity fund manager Progressus in 2006, sold the Progressus portfolio company Viju to the Dutch-German Private Equity firm Avedon Capital Partners.

Under Progressus active stewardship Viju has grown its revenues from NOK 80 million to more than NOK 800 million through strong organic and acquisitive growth. Number of employees have grown from 25 to 280 and number of offices from 1 small office in Stavanger to 11 across Norway, UK, USA, Singapore and Malaysia.

Avedon Capital Partners acquires VisionsConnected and Viju to create a leading global provider of video conferencing, audiovisual and collaboration solutions

The ambition for the new combined company is to build a leading global visual collaboration company specializing in designing, installing, servicing and supporting physical and virtual meeting environments for global customers with a strategic need for videoconferencing, collaboration and audiovisual solutions.

The combined company today serves corporate and public customers in about 100 countries. It will have its official headquarter in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and will continue to serve customers from multiple office locations throughout EMEA, USA & APAC. A new brand, that reflects the evolution of these two reputable businesses into an integrated global organization, is expected to be launched in early 2018.

Rune Jensen (Progressus Private Equity, majority owner Viju): “Under our ownership, Viju has tenfolded revenues and established offices around the globe. We look forward to following the new company’s continued journey, and believe Avedon is very well positioned to take it to the next level”

About Viju
Viju is a global visual communications specialist, whose aim is to transform the way people communicate and collaborate in the workplace. Their solutions and services include video conferencing, audio visual integration and unified communications and collaboration.

About VisionsConnected
VisionsConnected is a global visual collaboration specialist on a mission to change the way people collaborate. They create and deliver cloud-based, high quality, secure and user-friendly video conferencing services to customers in over 120 countries.

About Avedon Capital Partners
Avedon Capital Partners is an investor passionate about supporting outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams of growth companies to realize their ambitions together. It is located in Amsterdam (NL) and Düsseldorf (GER). Avedon focuses on niches within four sectors: Software & Technology, Business Services, Industry & Engineering, and Consumer & Leisure. Since it was established, the team has invested in over 20 growth capital transactions and has achieved a strong track record of growth

Progressus is a private equity company based in Stavanger, Norway, providing capital and competence to growth companies in the oil and gas and technology sectors. In 2015 Progressus Management joined Energy Ventures to form EV Private Equity.

Future Ordering has raised 22 million from investors Fort Knox Storage and Partners Invest North – partly owned by Almi Invest. The company is developing a cloud service for online orders over the phone, web and kiosk for large restaurant chains and catering operators.

Future service Ordering manages an unbroken chain from marketing / loyalty, pre-order via the Web, mobile to the kiosk and Delivery – fully integrated with the restaurant’s cash register system. Behind the company’s experience from ten years of working with digital orders, which today generates millions of transactions.

Considerable resources have been devoted to creating a service where, in real time and with the support of machine learning to optimize offer, beställningstid and the average bill and hence the restaurant’s entire profitability. The system will be a natural interface to the new digital assistants that found their way into our homes, cars and telephones.

– All restaurant chains now have to build its own digital ordering channel. It is a global industry that needs this type of solution is enormous. Thrill to a company that started in Luleå quickly come to be regarded as the leader in digital self-service in Europe “, says Henrik Wimelius, investment manager at Fort Knox in Umeå.

– Being able to develop and manage their own integrated ordering channel is expensive for a restaurant chain, regardless of size. It is much more cost effective to subscribe to a flexible standard and Future Ordering provides just this opportunity, “says Lena Fridlund Forsgren, Investment Manager at Partners Invest.

– It is incredibly inspiring with so much confidence from our investors to kickstart marketing. Now we are looking more employees, first customer is live since a few months back in Denmark. We have also become a Gold Partner and made a verified integration with cash register system from Oracle Hospitality. The expansion plan is aggressive, so now it’s about to sell and continue the development of future orders, says Andreas Stormvinge, CEO and co-founder of Future Ordering.

PSW Group has taken a strategic step to provide operators with a capping stack as part of Norwegian Oil & Gas emergency response plans.
PSW Group’s capping stack was mobilized and deployed in Fensfjorden on the 22nd of August, successfully demonstrating the company’s ability to immediately respond to a well control incident.

PSW Group’s capping stack was mobilized and deployed in Fensfjorden on the 22nd of August, successfully demonstrating the company’s ability to immediately respond to a well control incident.

In preparation for their first operated well, Wellesley Petroleum tested the mobilization and deployment procedures of PSW Group’s stack to ensure their well could be capped within a 72 hour target. The exercise not only tested the capping stack and deployment team, but the associated support systems in Wellesley and Well Expertise incident teams.

“The capping stack deployment exercise with our Well Incident Team has increased our knowledge and confidence to react in a well control situation. We are very pleased with the collaborative efforts from all concerned” says Callum Smyth, Country Manager i Wellesley Petroleum.

The capping stack is stored at the PSW Group facilties at Mongstad and has a 24/7 duty team available.

“Our capping stack can be ready at Mongstad quayside within 24 hours of notification. We have the facilities, tools and personnel to maintain, test and mobilise the stack, as well as deploy and install on the relevant well” says Oddbjørn Haukøy, CEO of PSW Group.

Contact:

Oddbjørn Haukøy, CEO of PSW Group

Telephone: + 47 91 17 19 14

Callum Smyth, Country Manager of Wellesley Petroleum

Telephone: + 47 95 27 15 68

Michael Simpson, CEO of Well Expertise

Telephone: + 47 48 09 98 41

PSW Group is a company which delivers multidiscipline services to the oil and energy sector, both onshore and offshore, with a strong customer base within subsea and drilling. The company is organised in the following entities: PSW Technology, PSW Solutions, PSW Integrity and PSW Power & Automation. The company is headquartered at the Subsea & Drilling base at Mongstad, and has additional offices at Ågotnes, Bergen, Liverpool and Aberdeen. For more information, please see www.psw.no

Wellesley Petroleum is a newly established Norwegian oil and gas operator with an extensive licence portfolio and an active exploration program. The Company has built a team of highly experienced industry professionals and completed their first operated well less than a month after the capping stack deployment exercise. For more information, please see www.wellesley.no

Well Expertise is awell management company with main office in Stavanger providing well planning and operational support aswell as a well incident team and support resources. For more information, please see www.wellexpertise.com

Almi Invest invests one million crowns in Falun 1TCompany The company, which has developed a cloud-based service for automatic error handling in applications.

In the issue of a total of two million is also participating the privately owned regional venture capital company Dalecarlia Growth. The investment will be used to market the service.

1TCompany, founded in 2017, develops tjänstenCodeRR that automates error handling for applications based on Microsoft’s popular .NET platform.

– With CodeRR increases quality and avoids manual error handling, saving time, resources, and reduces the risk of lost revenue, says Håkan Alfon, investment manager at Almi Invest.Med already thousands of downloads we think CodeRR is ready for the next step, and commercial launch. We look forward to be part of that journey.

Today, corrected errors generated by IT applications manually by the developer goes through the program to try to identify the error, which is a time consuming job. CodeRR detect errors, analyzes and can provide suggestions for actions automatically. The error handling is faster because CodeRR specify where and how it went wrong in the code.

– After many years as a developer, I know that it spends several hours to find and analyze errors that occurred. That’s how I got the idea to create a tool that automates the management of errors so that I can focus on better solution quality, says Jonas Gauffin, founder of 1TCompany.

CodeRR launched as open source by the end of last year and is already available for free download and evaluation. 1TCompany are now ready to launch the service with extended functionality ready for operation environments.

Helsport and Swix: Stronger together

Swix Sport has acquired the entire share capital of the well-known company Helsport. The acquisition makes the Ferd-owned brand aggregator almost a complete supplier in the outdoor segment of the sports industry, which is to say a supplier of products for anyone who loves the great outdoors.

Helsport is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of lightweight sleeping bags and tents. Now the company will join Swix, Ulvang, Lundhags, Hard Rocx and Toko as part of Swix Sport.

“In the outdoor segment, we already offer a wide range of equipment, footwear and clothing from Lundhags and Ulvang. We can now supplement this offer with tents, lavvus, sleeping bags, backpacks and mountain trekking equipment for the full range of users, whether they need equipment for extreme conditions or favour comfort and user-friendliness”, explains Tomas Holmestad, CEO of Swix Sport, in an interview with Ferd Magazine.

A good owner
Stein Helliksen, the owner and CEO of Helsport since 1974, emphasises that he regards Swix Sport as a good and reliable owner with regard to the company’s further development now that he is selling. He will continue, however, to serve as the CEO of Helsport, and there are no plans to move its head office from Melhus just south of Trondheim, which is where 16 of the company’s employees will remain. The company also has a marketing office in Oslo with a further two employees, who will now be moving to Swix premises.

Record profit
Stein Helliksen has decided to sell the company following a period of strong growth. With record turnover of NOK 120 million and its best ever profit, 2016 was the company’s best year ever. 2017 is shaping up to be even better in every way.

“Helsport has never been better positioned than it is today – and I see this as a good starting point for becoming part of a larger constellation in an industry that is facing both restructuring and challenges, but that also offers great opportunities”, he comments.

Stein emphasises that there is a clear trend towards bigger units and stiffer competition, and innovation is becoming increasingly important, while the industry will also have to meet new and stricter requirements in terms of environmental sustainability, fair trade and willingness to engage with corporate social responsibility. Like Tomas Holmestad, Stein Helliksen thinks there is the potential for significant synergies now that Helsport and Swix Sport are combining forces, with particularly sizeable opportunities in exports:

“We have a range of products that have features that make them the best in the world. With Swix Sports’ resources, international subsidiaries and distribution facilities, both parties will be able to reap significant benefits”, he explains.

The whole interview is available in the Ferd Magazine in Norwegian).Photo: Helsport

IK Investment Partners (“IK”), a leading European private equity firm, is pleased to announce that the IK VII Fund (“the Fund”) has reached an agreement with private equity funds managed by Bridgepoint (“Bridgepoint”) to sell Evac Group (“Evac” or “the Company”), the world’s leading provider of integrated waste, wastewater, and water management systems for the marine, offshore and building industries.

Evac designs and markets environmentally friendly waste and wastewater collection and treatment systems for the marine, offshore and building industries. The Company has successfully carried out over 20,000 marine, 2,000 offshore and 2,000 building projects for customers around the world. It has employees in Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, Korea, Norway, Sweden and the USA, as well as representatives in more than 40 additional countries.

Sustainability is one of the cornerstone of Evac’s operations. The Company’s technologies address the increasing need for innovative cleantech solutions, driven by the megatrends of climate change, the need for energy efficiency, and increasingly scarce freshwater resources. An example of an innovative waste management system is the Evac briquetting unit used for minimising the storage volume of recyclable and non-recyclable dry waste on board vessels. The technology reduces ship waste by a factor of 10.

The IK VII Fund acquired Evac in December 2014 as part of its strategy of acquiring and developing mid cap companies headquartered in Northern Continental Europe. In the course of the Fund’s ownership Evac has achieved strong growth, with company turnover increasing by 55% exceeding MEUR 100 for the first time in the company’s history.

“During the past few years, we have strategically repositioned Evac from a component provider to a fully integrated cleantech solutions supplier, consequently further strengthening the Company’s position as the global market leader. We have only been able to do so with a talented management team at Evac, and we wish them continued success under Bridgepoint’s ownership,” said Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK VII Fund.

“It has been a pleasure working with the IK team. With their support, we have completed two significant add-on acquisitions as well as boldly invested in our in-house development capabilities and product offering, and we now have the largest and most advanced cleantech system portfolio in our sector,” said Tomi Gardemeister, CEO of Evac Group.

Evac is the first exit of the IK VII Fund and the second exit IK has announced in a week. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Completion of the transaction is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9 billion of capital and invested in over 110 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

About Evac
Evac is the world’s leading provider of integrated waste, wastewater, and water management systems for the marine, offshore, and building industries. We have successfully carried out over 20,000 marine, 1,500 offshore and 2,000 building projects for customers around the world. For more information, visit www.evac.com

oday, EQT VII portfolio company IFS, announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire WorkWave – a leading provider of highly scalable, cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for field service, last mile delivery and logistics industries.

Based in New Jersey, USA, WorkWave’s software seamlessly integrates back office, field operations and front-end marketing solutions, enabling businesses to streamline tasks such as scheduling, planning and billing, productivity, automate marketing and sales activities.

When EQT VII acquired IFS in 2015, the ambition was to further accelerate an already strong growth through selective investments in IFS’ focus verticals. With the acquisition of WorkWave, IFS is increasing its global leadership within Field Service Management and is further expanding its North American footprint, making America IFS’ largest geographical region.

“The management team, led by CEO Alastair Sorbie, does an impressive job strengthening IFS’ leadership positions in the verticals it serves. Following the acquisition of Mxi within the IFS aviation and defense segment, WorkWave is an important milestone in realizing IFS’ global field service management and cloud strategy. The growth path that IFS has embarked on is remarkable and it is another great example of EQT’s ambition to future proof its portfolio companies”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT VII.

In the issue of a total of over three million is also participating Savings Bank Foundation and private sector investors. The money will go to the development and marketing for the launch of its service in October.

With AppliedGroups service called Penguin (formerly Applied Loyalty), e-retailers flexibly design their own loyalty programs. The system collects data about customers’ interests and buying habits, in order to offer benefits and discounts specifically tailored for each customer.

The system also rewards e-commerce customer engagement in social media. A customer, such as parts or like Facebook Posts from an e-retailers will be rewarded. What kind of reward given is up to the individual e-retailer.

– Customer loyalty is key to e-retailers, says Mats Håkansson, Investment Manager at Almi Invest. AppliedGroup offers a concept of the end customer’s perspective in mind and we believe that this responds to a wide customer needs.

The underlying need for AppliedGroups service is increased sales and improved margins for e-retailers, primarily through increased frequency of repeat purchases from customers. The service was developed in cooperation with a major e-retailers, with positive results. In October, it’s time for a broader rollout.

– With this investment we will be able to carry a full introduction to the market and get the show in black and white what great benefit traders get out of our service, says Johan Wikström, President of AppliedGroup.

3i Group plc (“3i”) today announces that Ponroy, a leading manufacturer of natural healthcare and cosmetics products in which 3i invested in January 2017, has acquired ERSA Group (“Aragan”), a designer and distributor of premium pharmaceutical food supplements. This acquisition will strengthen Ponroy’s presence in the pharmacy channel, which represents more than half of the food supplement market in France.

Under the leadership of Philippe Charrier, the combined group will be a leading player in the natural consumer healthcare industry in France with revenues in excess of €200m. Ponroy will benefit from Aragan’s innovative culture and Ponroy’s international presence will enable Aragan to penetrate new markets outside France.

Aragan, which employs approx. 100 staff, sells its food supplements through three brands: ARAGAN, SYNActifs and ERBALAB. The company has grown at 40% p.a. since 2012 into one of the leading players in the pharmacy channel in France, by using its innovation-led approach to develop a number of professional brands based on health and wellbeing. The combined business will become #4 in the pharmacy channel in France, with around €50m of revenues.

“3i is delighted to support Ponroy’s first acquisition since our investment which confirms Ponroy’s ambitious growth plans in line with the strategy we set out. Aragan is very complementary to Ponroy and we look forward to supporting the combined business to continue its international growth, further strengthen its position in the pharmacy channel in France and continue to take advantage of the rise of natural consumer healthcare which is a mega consumer trend in food and cosmetics.”

Nicolas Brodetsky, currently Aragan CEO since 2011, will lead the pharmacy business unit for the combined group. He said:

“I am delighted by this new partnership between Ponroy and Aragan and the future opportunities for both businesses. This is a key step in our development. New and exciting challenges are ahead of us and I am delighted to join Philippe Charrier and his team to establish a leader in the food supplement market with high potential for international growth. I would like to thank Calcium Capital for the last 4 years of partnership, which have enabled us to strengthen our development model.”

Funds advised by Bregal Unternehmerkapital have acquired a majority stake in gabo Systemtechnik GmbH. The company is based in Niederwinkling/Bavaria and develops, produces and distributes micro duct systems to major European telecommunication companies as well as local fibre network operators and municipalities. Its array of products comprises more than 800 pipes, fittings and sealing elements which can be combined individually. gabo employs about 150 people and currently predominantly operates in Germany, Austria, Italy and Belgium.

The company has been recording significant and sustainable growth for many years. With the investment, Bregal Unternehmerkapital plans to continue gabo’s successful path together with the management team. The focus remains on internationalization, sales activities and development of new products.

Bregal Unternehmerkapital is looking forward to working jointly together in a promising market.

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